How to Use A Concordance: A Complete Guide

Have you ever picked up a concordance and felt overwhelmed or confused? I have. I still remember the first time I used one; it was intimidating. Let’s get rid of that feeling, and learn to use a concordance with confidence.

A Bible concordance is like a subject index to the Bible. Concordances are used to discover translations of words and see which verses contain a particular word. As such, a concordance can be a very helpful tool in doing topical studies or word studies in the inductive bible study method.

If you want to learn more about the inductive Bible study method, then you may want to check out this article that will walk you through the Inductive Bible study method step by step. You’ll get amazing worksheets to help you walk through Inductive Bible study and see how to do word studies.

Now, let’s learn how to use a concordance with confidence.

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Choose a Bible Concordance

The first step in using a concordance is choosing one to use. There are three types of concordances: compact, complete, and exhaustive. The compact concordance will contain a few keywords and popular verses. An exhaustive concordance, however, will contain all words and all references to those words.

If you want to know more about the different types of concordances, especially when to use them, then you need to read this article.

Another thing you will need to consider when choosing a Bible concordance is translation. A Bible concordance is created to match with a specific translation. So, if you use the NIV all of the time, then I’d recommend getting an NIV Concordance like the NIV Exhaustive Bible Concordance.

Determine What Word to Search

Now that you have chosen a concordance, the next thing that you will want to do is to determine what word to search. Sometimes, people used to use a concordance to look up a passage that they can only remember a phrase from.

For example, if you remembered a verse that mentions “seek first the kingdom of God” but don’t recall where it came from. Then you could pick a word from that phrase like “seek” and scan the references to seek until you find the verse you are looking for.

Though if I was you, I would just google it. That’s a lot faster these days. But back when concordances were first created that wasn’t an option.

That might make you wonder, “Is a Bible concordance even necessary?” Well, I wrote an article to help answer that question and give some benefits of using a concordance today.

Most people today will use a concordance to discover the meaning or translation of a word and/or verses where that word is used. That’s where concordances come in handy now.

We’ll break these different uses into two different options:

• Option 1: You are using a concordance for a Topical Study and want to know verses where a particular word is used.
• Option 2: You are using a concordance for a Word Study, and want to know the meaning or translation of a word.

For now, both options are following the same step. So, the second step in using a concordance is to choose a word that you want to know more about.

So, what types of words should you choose? Well, perhaps while studying you run across an unfamiliar word or a word you think is important (Word Study Option). This is the word you will want to search. Or you can choose a word that you want to know more about and do a topical study on, like “covenant” or “atonement.”

For example, say we are reading the Sermon on the Mount. We come across the verse,

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.”

Matthew 6:33, NASB

This makes us ask ourselves, “What does it mean to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness?” A concordance will help us answer that question. We can do that by choosing a word to look up in the concordance. For us it is going to be “seek.” That will help answer our question. And we’ll continue to follow the Option 2: Word Study option later.

If you want to do a topical study of a particular word, then you can simply choose that word to look up in the concordance. So now that we’ve chosen a word, it is time to locate that word in our concordance.

Locate the Alphabetical Listings

The third step in using a concordance is to locate the alphabetical listings. As a general rule, concordances contain two sections. These two sections are:

• The Concordance: This section is the part that lists the words in alphabetical order, verses where that word is found, and a reference number to look up that word in the dictionary.
• The Dictionaries: Behind the first section is the dictionaries. There is both a Hebrew-Aramaic dictionary and a Greek dictionary.

The Concordance or alphabetical listings are typically going to be the front section of a concordance. So, you’ll want to open up to the front section. We have our word “seek” that we are wanting to find more information about and now we’ve found the alphabetical listings. It’s time to move on to step four.

Find the Relevant Entry

Step four is to look up our word in the alphabetical listing. So scan through the entries until you find the word you are looking for. Entries will either be bolded, capitalized, or in a bigger font. This makes navigating the concordance and finding the relevant entry easier.

Below the entry will be a list of three columns that contain the following information:

• Phrases of the verse that contain the word of the entry. Typically the entry word will be abbreviated to the first letter and either bold or italicized to make reading each verse simpler.
• The location of the verse in the Bible. This will list the book, chapter, and verse number where that phrase and word can be found in the Bible.
• A reference number. This is a number for the original language word from which the English word was translated. It is this number that can make looking up a word in the dictionary later easier without having to know Ancient Hebrew or Greek.

Refer to Verse References

Step five in using a concordance is to refer to the verse references. This is where we will go back to the reasons of using a concordance with Option 1 and Option 2. Remember, Option 1 is if you are using a concordance for a topical study, while Option 2 is if you are doing a word study.

Option 1: Topical Study Option

So for the topical study option, you’ll want to look at the list of verse references in the second column and write down where your word is found throughout the Bible.

You can choose as many or as few as you like to write down depending on what concordance you chose earlier. If you are working with a compact concordance I would write down all references as there will only be a few.

If you are using an exhaustive concordance, then I would scan the entries and pick references that seem to be key in understanding the word and I would choose verse references from different genres in both the Old and New Testament. Right now, you are just going to create a list of those references.

Option 2: Word Study Option

For the word study option, you will want to use the second column of verse references to scan down and find the specific verse that you started with. Typically, these verse references will be in the same order as the books of the Bible.

So, for our “seek” example, we’ll scan down the references until we find Matthew 6:33 (Mt 6:33). We’ll see this entry:

“But s first His kingdom and His Mt 6:33 2212

Retrieve the Bible Verses or Reference Number

Now that we’ve referred to the verse references, it’s time to either look them up or get the reference number for the original language word. This will depend on what you are using you concordance for.

Option 1: Topical Study Option

In this step you will look up in your Bible the references that you listed out in the previous step. You can do this either using a physical copy of the Bible or digital versions of the Bible.

Option 2: Word Study Option

For this option you will want to retrieve the reference number for the original language word. This is the number in the third column. Reference numbers are used to connect an English word with an original Hebrew or Greek word.

Often, one original language word is translated into many different English words, depending on the context of a passage. But this reference number will help us look up that word and see what other English words it may have been translated into, all without having to learn a new language.

For our example of “seek” in Matthew 6:33, the reference number is 2212.

Read and Study

The seventh step in using a concordance is to read and study. Our actual use of using a concordance is over (unless you are doing a word study).

Option 1: Topical Study

If you are doing the topical study option, then in this step you will read the verses you’ve previously looked up. You can take notes on common themes and elements around your word. To help you do this, I would read the surrounding context of those verses as well.

What kind of things are going on? Whose involved or mentioned when this word is used? Is it the same people in every verse you read? This will help you get a big picture idea of the word you are doing a topical study on.

Option 2: Word Study

For step seven, you are going to want to continue using your concordance to do a little further study. Now, is the time when the second section of the concordance, the dictionaries, will come in handy. There are going to be two dictionaries:

• Hebrew-Aramaic Dictionary: This one is for words found in the Old Testament.
• Greek Dictionary: This one is used for words found in the New Testament.

So, we’ll take our reference number and look it up in the corresponding dictionary. What’s so great about these reference numbers is that you don’t have to know any Greek to look up a word. Simply, look up the number.

For “seek” we are going to look up the number 2212. This is what you’ll see:

This shows the reference number followed by the Greek word, the transliterated Greek word, and the origin of the word. After the semicolon in italics is the general definition of the Greek word. In this case, “to seek”. Following that is specific translations of how the Greek word was translated into English.

So, the Greek word was translated “seek” 36 times in the NASB, “trying” 6 times, “looking” 11 times, etc. Knowing others ways the word is translated, we can back and reread our verse in context and see if any of these other words may better fit or shape our understanding of a verse.

So, for Matthew 6:33 we can go back and read it,

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.”

Matthew 6:33, NASB

Now, that we’ve gained some insight to the word “seek” we can see that Jesus is not just talking about us looking around for the Kingdom of God or His Righteousness. Rather, He is saying that it is something we should strive for. It’s something we should crave and desire.

Our focus, attention, and desire should be on growing the Kingdom of God by living the way He wants and not on the cares and anxieties of the world like what we will eat or wear.

Repeat if Desired

The eighth and final step of using a concordance is to rinse and repeat. If you have additional words you are unfamiliar with or want to know more about, then repeat the process with those words. Once you’ve explored a topic to your satisfaction, find another one.

A concordance is an extremely valuable tool in Bible study that can help you experience the Bible in a unique way. It is especially helpful if you are interested in specific themes, words, or topics within the Bible.

Using An Online Bible Concordance

Using a physical copy of a concordance is not the only way to go. With the rise of technology in the 21st century there are tons of online Bible study tools available, including concordances. Some are even free to use. An online concordance can be even easier to use.

So, let’s take a moment to look at some places online where you can find a concordance and how to use them.

Bible Gateway

Bible Gateway is a great resource for reading the Bible online. They have a great side bar that includes resources and study aids, like looking at the Greek and Hebrew words. That said, access to the original language part (and most resources) requires a subscription to Bible Gateway Plus for less than $5/mo.

Because of the limited access to free resources, Bible Gateway is not the best place to go for using a concordance online.

Bible Hub

A much better option for an online concordance that is free to use is Bible Hub. Bible Hub is similar to Bible Gateway in that you can read the Bible, but they offer a better selection of free Bible study tools and resources.

From my experience, Bible Hub is not really user friendly. There are so many steps to get the information you want. I mean it takes way too many clicks. You can use a physical concordance just as quickly. For that reason, I don’t use Bible Hub, nor recommend it as an online Concordance.

Step Bible

Blue Letter Bible